The Foundation For Humanity’s Adulthood
The following is an updated version of a profile published in A Species In Denial (2003) and written by FHA Vice-President Tim Macartney-Snape AM
The Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood (FHA) was founded in 1983 to promote inquiry into, and understanding of the human condition. Its particular focus is on promoting the biological explanations of the human condition put forward by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith in his books Free: The End Of The Human Condition, published in 1988, Beyond The Human Condition, published in 1991, A Species In Denial published in 2003, and The Great Exodus: From the horror and darkness of the human condition, published in 2006 (all of these books are available on-line). The aim of the FHA, as stated in its memorandum of association, is to ‘bring forward understanding of the human condition and through doing that ameliorate that condition’. The Foundation is registered as a charity in NSW, Australia, and is a company limited by guarantee. The Foundation has six directors, Jeremy Griffith, Simon Griffith, Stacy Rodger, Tim Watson, Bronwyn FitzGerald and myself. It also has members and supporters.
Jeremy has mentioned that he, his brother Simon, myself and others involved in the FHA attended Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, where we were the beneficiaries of the unique approach to education of the late Sir James Darling. In the essay about Plato’s cave allegory in A Species In Denial, Jeremy referred to Sir James’ emphasis in education on preserving and cultivating the sensitive, instinctual, soulful side of students—as opposed to the usual emphasis on intellectual achievement; on academic prowess and success in competition. In a highly competitive and pragmatic world this was a very brave approach to take. In fact it bordered on heresy, but I believe the benefits are fully on display in this book, for only innocence can confront and then reach all the way to the bottom of the issue of the human condition. The inclusion of Sir James as one of the 200 ‘great Australians’, the only headmaster on the list, in Australia’s Bicentennial year in 1988, was testament to his stature as an educator. It is also significant, especially in the context of this book, that in Sir James’ full-page obituary in The Australian newspaper in 1995 he was described as, ‘a prophet in the true Biblical sense’ (3 Nov. 1995).
Sir James Darling was himself a product of very special education in England. His teacher and mentor was William Temple, an inspired educator who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury and to be considered by many as the most enlightened of all leaders of the Anglican Church. Indeed these insights into the human condition that Jeremy has synthesised are the fruition of a carefully cultivated enterprise that goes right back to Plato, a sequence of inspired educators who have sought to cultivate and preserve soul against the always threatening demands of a pragmatic, compromising world in denial. All of us involved in the FHA regard it a very great privilege to participate in the final stage of this enterprise. Now that the truth about the human condition has finally been dug up from its historically repressed state and is scientifically explained our job is firstly to defend the all-precious explanation against the historic denial, and secondly to educate the world at large about the explanation. The following is a summary of the work of the Foundation.
I should first explain the Foundation’s ‘key held aloft’ logo and name. The discovery of the cause of humans’ capacity for good and evil is the key that ameliorates that troubled condition, and our task in the FHA is to hold that key aloft. Since such understanding matures humanity from insecure adolescence to secure adulthood we are laying The Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood.
Initially the FHA offered formal subscriptions and published regular lengthy newsletters, the first in December 1988, the last, Newsletter 32, in March 1997. By late 1997 the FHA had so developed that it was decided to replace subscription and newsletters with a website that in time will be complemented with university-level computer courses in the study of the human condition, together with public lectures.
The FHA has members and supporters. Members are recognised under the FHA’s Articles of Association and are people who support the objectives of the FHA on a daily basis. Supporters are those that the FHA recognises as being appreciative and supportive of its work but who are not as directly involved.
Those supporting the FHA on a daily basis are the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood, the people who have taken it upon themselves to pioneer the new, human condition-ameliorated world into being despite the immense resistance from an existing world deeply habituated to living in a resigned, egocentric state of denial of the issue of the human condition.
At the beginning of January 2007, there were over one hundred FHA members and supporters. I note that it is to the steadfast commitment, selflessness and love of the FHA Members that Jeremy dedicated his 2003 book, A Species In Denial.
The defenders of a new idea play a critical role, as noted by science historian Thomas Kuhn: ‘In science [according to Kuhn] ideas do not change simply because new facts win out over outmoded ones…Since the facts can’t speak for themselves, it is their human advocates who win or lose the day’ (Shirley C. Strum, Almost Human, 1987, p.164 of 294). Similarly, John Stuart Mill, in his 1859 essay On Liberty, emphasised that, ‘the dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries’ (American state papers; On liberty; Representative government; Utilitarianism, 1952, p.280 of 476).
Sir James Darling described the courage needed to defend a new paradigm when he wrote the following words about the very early Christian Church: ‘Under the strain of danger and persecution, the society [the early Christian Church] was tested like gold tried in the fire. Inside the fellowship we can imagine that the bonds of fellowship were very strong and the pride in membership high. Such a fellowship, though only the brave would join it, would naturally attract the best, but, even so, only if its members were convinced themselves and anxious to convince others that they had found…a pearl of great price’ (The Education of a Civilized Man, 1962, p.117 of 223). I should emphasise that what we are involved in is not a new church or religion. What we are involved in is not concerned with ‘faith’ and ‘belief’, rather it is concerned with first-principle-based, biological understanding. In many ways knowledge is both the opposite of faith and what ultimately replaces the need for faith. It is nevertheless true that this is a new paradigm that is being introduced, just as the early Christian Church was a new paradigm for humans.
The majority of FHA members are, in January 2007, around 33 years of age. Most became interested in the understanding of the human condition in Jeremy’s books through attending study groups that were established by fellow university students who had already become interested in the understanding. Periodically Jeremy was invited to attend these meetings. The main study groups that formed were at universities in Sydney, Brisbane, and the city of Armidale in the New England district of northern NSW.
The FHA is a highly organised and motivated corporation. It has its own offices in Sydney from where its many projects are managed. The FHA members live in nearby suburbs, most sharing various rented accommodation, while Jeremy and his partner Annie spend their time between Sydney and a retreat five hours drive from Sydney where Jeremy is able to concentrate on his writing—a whole new paradigm is being opened up for humans and there is a great deal to explain about it. Many members have professional qualifications which they are putting to good use within the various FHA departments. We even have our own rugby team called the Ned Kellys, named after the legendary Australian bushranger who courageously defied the establishment. Since 2001 the Foundation’s exhaustive records have been progressively converted to electronic archives so that anyone in the future can know its full history.
Most members have long-standing partners within the FHA but because of their commitment to the immense task they have undertaken of ending humanity’s denial most are not as yet formally married, or have children. With the priority so clearly being to defend this information against the entrenched denial of the issue of the human condition, getting married and having children has very much been a secondary concern. In the case of having children, with billions of children in the world and no answers to the overwhelming problems facing humanity, the members, in their denial-aware state, are able to see that getting these answers out into the world logically comes first. Also, the more a person understands the importance of nurturing the more they appreciate how consuming and important a task parenting is. Essentially, the greater the need for the new, all-important but extremely confronting insights, and the greater the resistance to them, the more selfless and committed we have to be prepared to be.
Our undertaking is infinitely more important and difficult than winning an international yacht race; it demands even more of the dedication, sacrifice and commitment that was demonstrated in Australia’s 1983 victory of the America’s Cup: ‘The Australians had never won the world’s most prestigious sailing event, the America’s Cup. Australian captain John Betrand was more than willing to change all of that. His motivation was to something that he loved dearly, sailing to victory with a team totally committed to excellence and to each other. Instead of focusing on years of past losing, he gave his crew a simple vision. “We are going to sail this boat as boats will be sailed in the year 2000, as no crew has ever sailed a boat before.” Knowing that teamwork required a willingness to get off of your own position for the sake of a bigger vision, he had his team commit themselves to living together for two years and to having a visualisation session each day, of winning the Cup together. They would see, hear, taste, and feel every aspect of the race. Two years of this made the vision a reality—they won the 1983 America’s Cup. In 1987, the American team, under the direction of Dennis Conner, had a similar vision and victory’ (Thomas F. Crum, The Magic of Conflict, 1998, p.164 of 251).
The FHA has the ultimate product for humans. The reconciling understanding of the human condition is the information that humans have been searching and anticipating for 2 million years! Having the ultimate product for humans means the FHA is the ultimate business prospect and offers the ultimate in meaningful careers, however, while all new products typically have to overcome difficulties before their potential can be realised, no new product has as many initial obstacles to overcome as the understanding of the human condition. In particular, before we can market our product we firstly have to overcome the ‘deaf effect’, people’s inability to take in or ‘hear’ analysis of the human condition. Secondly we need to survive the backlash from the shock that the world of denial feels from having its denial exposed. Above all what these extreme start-up difficulties demonstrate is that the FHA has to initially be self-sufficient. Since its inception, the FHA's funding has come predominantly from the donations of the proceeds of the sale of a furniture business established by Jeremy Griffith and the proceeds of the sale of a hospitality business established by his brother Simon. More recently, it has been the commitment and support of its members, in particular donating their time and effort, that has enabled the FHA to grow into a strong organisation capable of launching the most worthwhile and important of all products.